A report on Monotheism

The tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), old Aramaic (10th century BCE to 4th century CE), and square Hebrew (3rd century BCE to present) scripts.
The Trinity is the belief in Christianity that God is one God in essence but three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
God in The Creation of Adam, fresco by Michelangelo (c. 1508–1512)
Arabic calligraphy reading "Allah, may his glory be glorified"
Mandaean pendant
Baháʼí House of Worship, Langenhain, Germany
Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten.
Shang Dynasty bronze script character for tian (天), which translates to Heaven and sky.
Krishna displays his Vishvarupa (universal form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit)
A Sikh temple, known as Nanaksar Gurudwara, in Alberta, Canada.
Ik Onkār, a Sikh symbol representing "the One Supreme Reality"
Fictionalized portrait of Xenophanes from a 17th-century engraving
Remains of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece.

Belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God.

- Monotheism
The tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), old Aramaic (10th century BCE to 4th century CE), and square Hebrew (3rd century BCE to present) scripts.

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The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.

God

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The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.
The word 'Allah' in Arabic calligraphy
Trinitarians believe that God is composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God Blessing the Seventh Day, 1805 watercolor painting by William Blake
Thomas Aquinas summed up five main arguments as proofs for God's existence. (Painting by Carlo Crivelli, 1476)
Isaac Newton saw the existence of a Creator necessary in the movement of astronomical objects. Painting by Godfrey Kneller, 1689
99 names of Allah, in Chinese Sini (script)
And Elohim Created Adam by William Blake, c. 1795
Ahura Mazda (depiction is on the right, with high crown) presents Ardashir I (left) with the ring of kingship. (Relief at Naqsh-e Rustam, 3rd century CE)
Use of the symbolic Hand of God in the Ascension from the Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850
The Arabic script of "Allah" in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Praying Hands by Albrecht Dürer

In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith.

Judaica (clockwise from top): Shabbat candlesticks, handwashing cup, Chumash and Tanakh, Torah pointer, shofar and etrog box

Judaism

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Judaica (clockwise from top): Shabbat candlesticks, handwashing cup, Chumash and Tanakh, Torah pointer, shofar and etrog box
Maccabees by Wojciech Stattler (1842)
A painting of Moses decorates the Dura-Europos synagogue dating from 244 CE
The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a remnant of the wall encircling the Second Temple. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.
Kennicott Bible, a 1476 Spanish Tanakh
Aleppo Codex, a Tanakh produced in Tiberias in the 10th century
A man holds up a Sephardi-style torah at the Western Wall, Jerusalem
Statue of Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain
Conservative women rabbis, Israel
El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia
Beta Israeli Kahen at the Western Wall
A Yemenite Jew at morning prayers, wearing a kippah skullcap, prayer shawl and tefillin
An Israeli female soldier prays at the Western Wall
Jewish boys wearing tzitzit and kippot play soccer in Jerusalem
Men wearing tallitot pray at the Western Wall
Two braided Shabbat challahs placed under an embroidered challah cover at the start of the Shabbat meal
Jews in Mumbai break the Yom Kippur fast with roti and samosas
Purim street scene in Jerusalem
Jewish personnel of the US Navy light candles on Hanukkah
A man reads a torah using a yad
The Sarajevo Synagogue in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Great Synagogue (Jerusalem)
Congregation Emanu-El of New York
18th-century circumcision chair Museum of Jewish Art and History
Two boys wearing tallit at a bar mitzvah. The torah is visible in the foreground.
The Bereavement (Yahrtzeit) Hasidic tish, Bnei Brak, Israel
Jewish students with their teacher in Samarkand, Uzbekistan c. 1910.
Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata, India
A Yemeni sofer writing a torah in the 1930s
Judaism is practiced around the world. This is an 1889 siddur published in Hebrew and Marathi for use by the Bene Israel community
The 12th century Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca in Toledo, Spain was converted to a church shortly after anti-Jewish pogroms in 1391
Muslim women in the mellah of Essaouira
The bimah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt

Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people.

Kobayashi Eitaku painting showing the god Izanagi (right) and Izanami, a goddess of creation and death in Japanese mythology.

Deity

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Hypothetical supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred.

Hypothetical supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred.

Kobayashi Eitaku painting showing the god Izanagi (right) and Izanami, a goddess of creation and death in Japanese mythology.
Pantheists believe that the universe itself and everything in it forms a single, all-encompassing deity.
Statuette of a nude, corpulent, seated woman flanked by two felines from Çatalhöyük, dating to c. undefined 6000 BCE, thought by most archaeologists to represent a goddess of some kind.
Yoruba deity from Nigeria
Egyptian tomb painting showing the gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus, who are among the major deities in ancient Egyptian religion.
A 4th century BC drachm (quarter shekel) coin from the Persian province of Yehud Medinata, possibly representing Yahweh seated on a winged and wheeled sun-throne.
The Kirkby Stephen Stone, discovered in Kirkby Stephen, England, depicts a bound figure, who some have theorized may be the Germanic god Loki.
Vellamo, the goddess of water in Finnish mythology, pictured as a mermaid in the coat of arms of Päijänne Tavastia.
4th-century Roman sarcophagus depicting the creation of man by Prometheus, with major Roman deities Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury, Juno, Apollo, Vulcan watching.
The zoomorphic feathered serpent deity (Kukulkan, Quetzalcoatl)
Deities of Polynesia carved from wood (bottom two are demons)
Holy Trinity (1756–1758) by Szymon Czechowicz, showing God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are revered in Christianity as a single deity.
The tetragrammaton in Phoenician (12th century BCE to 150 BCE), Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), and square Hebrew (3rd century BCE to present) scripts.
Padmavati, a Jain guardian deity
Investiture of Sassanid emperor Shapur II (center) with Mithra (left) and Ahura Mazda (right) at Taq-e Bostan, Iran
The Greek philosopher Democritus argued that belief in deities arose when humans observed natural phenomena such as lightning and attributed such phenomena to supernatural beings.

Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas polytheistic religions accept multiple deities.

The Kaaba at Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest Islamic site

Islam

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The Kaaba at Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest Islamic site
Muhammad receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel. From the manuscript Jami' al-Tawarikh by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, 1307.
The first chapter of the Quran, Al-Fatiha (The Opening), is seven verses
A Persian miniature depicts Muhammad leading Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets in prayer.
Silver coin of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, inscribed with the Shahadah
Muslim men prostrating in prayer, at the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus.
A fast-breaking feast, known as Iftar, is served traditionally with dates
Pilgrims at the Great Mosque of Mecca during the Hajj season
Muslim men reading the Quran
Portrait of the Mughal Emperor Akbar supplicating to God.
Rashidun and Umayyad expansion
Dome of the Rock built by caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; completed at the end of the Second Fitna
The eye, according to Hunain ibn Ishaq from a manuscript dated c. 1200
Ghazan Khan, 7th Ilkhanate ruler of the Mongol Empire, converts to Islam
Abdülmecid II was the last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman dynasty.
World Muslim population by percentage (Pew Research Center, 2014).
The nine volumes of Sahih Al-Bukhari, one of the six Sunni hadith books
The Imam Hussein Shrine in Iraq is a holy site for Shia Muslims
An overview of the major sects and madhahib of Islam
The Whirling Dervishes, or Mevlevi Order by the tomb of Sufi-mystic Rumi
Islamic schools of law in the Muslim world
Crimean Tatar Muslim students (1856)
Islamic veils represent modesty
John of Damascus, under the Umayyad Caliphate, viewed Islamic doctrines as a hodgepodge from the Bible.
Great Mosque of Djenné, in the west African country of Mali
Dome in Po-i-Kalyan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan
14th century Great Mosque of Xi'an in China
16th century Menara Kudus Mosque in Indonesia showing Indian influence
The phrase Bismillah in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the Ottoman region.
Geometric arabesque tiling on the underside of the dome of Hafiz Shirazi's tomb in Shiraz, Iran
Ulu mosque in Utrecht, Netherlands

Islam (الإسلام, ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text that is considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or Allah) as it was revealed to Muhammad, the main and final Islamic prophet.

An Eastern Christian icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

Christianity

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An Eastern Christian icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
Various depictions of Jesus
Crucifixion, representing the death of Jesus on the Cross, painting by Diego Velázquez, c. 1632.
The Law and the Gospel by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1529); Moses and Elijah point the sinner to Jesus for salvation.
The Trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
Midnight Mass at a Catholic parish church in Woodside, New York City, U.S.
Show on the life of Jesus at Igreja da Cidade in São José dos Campos, affiliated to the Brazilian Baptist Convention.
An early circular ichthys symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ into a wheel, Ephesus, Asia Minor.
The Bible is the sacred book in Christianity.
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, the largest church in the world and a symbol of the Catholic Church.
The 7th-century Khor Virap monastery in the shadow of Mount Ararat; Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as the state religion, in AD 301.
The Monastery of St. Matthew, located atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq, is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence.
Kadisha Valley, Lebanon, home to some of the earliest Christian monasteries in the world.
Christendom by A.D. 600 after its spread to Africa and Europe from the Middle East.
An example of Byzantine pictorial art, the Deësis mosaic at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he preached the First Crusade. Illustration by Jean Colombe from a copy of the Passages d'outremer, c. 1490.
Martin Luther initiated the Reformation with his Ninety-five Theses in 1517.
Michelangelo's 1498–99 Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica; the Catholic Church was among the patronages of the Renaissance.
A depiction of Madonna and Child in a 19th-century Kakure Kirishitan Japanese woodcut.
A Christian procession in Brazil, the country with the largest Catholic population in the world.
Trinity Sunday in Russia; the Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a great revival since the fall of communism.
The global distribution of Christians: Countries colored a darker shade have a higher proportion of Christians.
Pope Francis, the current leader of the Catholic Church.
St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul: It has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople whose leader is regarded as the primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, the seat of the Ethiopian Orthodox.
A 6th-century Nestorian church, St. John the Arab, in the Assyrian village of Geramon in Hakkari, southeastern Turkey.
Saint Mary Church; an ancient Assyrian church located in the city of Urmia, Iran.
A 19th-century drawing of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist. Latter Day Saints believe that the Priesthood ceased to exist after the death of the apostles and therefore needed to be restored.
Unitarian Church of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca.
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A copy of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas, a famous Christian apologetic work.
Christians fleeing their homes in the Ottoman Empire, circa 1922. Many Christians were persecuted and/or killed during the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Assyrian genocide.
Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple; countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink
Nations with Christianity as their state religion are in blue
Distribution of Catholics
Distribution of Protestants
Distribution of Eastern Orthodox
Distribution of Oriental Orthodox
Distribution of other Christians
Links between interdenominational movements and other developments within Protestantism
Historical chart of the main Protestant branches
The Cenacle on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, claimed to be the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost.
A folio from Papyrus 46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline epistles

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Egyptian gods in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Polytheism

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Belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals.

Belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals.

Egyptian gods in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Bulul statues serve as avatars of rice deities in the Anitist beliefs of the Ifugao in the Philippines.
Procession of the Twelve Olympians
It is sometimes claimed that Christianity is not truly monotheistic because of its idea of the Trinity

Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent.

Statue of Akhenaten at the Egyptian Museum

Akhenaten

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Ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Statue of Akhenaten at the Egyptian Museum
Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their children
This limestone relief of a royal couple in the Amarna style has variously been attributed as Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Smenkhkare and Meritaten, or Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun.
Akhenaten's elder brother Thutmose, shown in his role as High Priest of Ptah. Akhenaten became heir to the throne after Thutmose died during their father's reign.
Wooden standing statue of Akhenaten. Currently in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin
One of the stele marking the boundary of the new capital Akhetaten
Talatat blocks from Akhenaten's Aten temple in Karnak
Amarna letter EA 362, titled A Commissionner Murdered. In this letter, Rib-Hadda of Byblos informs the pharaoh of the death of Pawura, an Egyptian commissionner.
Painted limestone miniature stela. It shows Akhenaten standing before 2 incense stands, Aten disc above. From Amarna, Egypt – 18th Dynasty. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Head of Akhenaten
In regnal year twelve, Akhenaten received tributes and offerings from allied countries and vassal states at Akhetaten, as depicted in the tomb of Meryra II.
Akhenaten's sarcophagus reconstituted from pieces discovered in his original tomb in Amarna, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
The desecrated royal coffin found in Tomb KV55
Profile view of the skull (thought to be Akhenaten) recovered from KV55
Relief fragment showing a royal head, probably Akhenaten, and early Aten cartouches. Aten extends Ankh (sign of life) to the figure. Reign of Akhenaten. From Amarna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Pharaoh Akhenaten (center) and his family worshiping the Aten, with characteristic rays seen emanating from the solar disk. Later such imagery was prohibited.
Akhenaten depicted as a sphinx at Amarna.
Inscribed limestone fragment showing early Aten cartouches, "the Living Ra Horakhty". Reign of Akhenaten. From Amarna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Fragment of a stela, showing parts of 3 late cartouches of Aten. There is a rare intermediate form of god's name. Reign of Akhenaten. From Amarna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Siliceous limestone fragment of a statue. There are late Aten cartouches on the draped right shoulder. Reign of Akhenaten. From Amarna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Akhenaten in the typical Amarna period style.
Small statue of Akhenaten wearing the Egyptian Blue Crown of War
Sculptor's trial piece of Akhenaten.
Hieratic inscription on a pottery fragment. It records year 17 of Akhenaten's reign and reference to wine of the house of Aten. From Amarna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Limestone trial piece of a king, probably Akhenaten, and a smaller head of uncertain gender. From Amarna, Egypt – 18th Dynasty. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether the religious policy was absolutely monotheistic, or whether it was monolatry, syncretistic, or henotheistic.

Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten

Monolatry

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Belief in the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity.

Belief in the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity.

Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten
Josiah Hearing the Book of the Law (1873)
Beginning in 1838, Joseph Smith taught that he had seen two personages in the spring of 1820. In 1843, Smith taught that these personages, God the Father and Jesus, had separate, tangible bodies.

Monolatry is distinguished from monotheism, which asserts the existence of only one god, and henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity.

An 8th century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, possibly a camel rider or even a Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva; Museum of Oriental Art (Turin), Italy.

Zoroastrianism

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Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster .

Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster .

An 8th century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, possibly a camel rider or even a Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva; Museum of Oriental Art (Turin), Italy.
Painted clay and alabaster head of a Zoroastrian priest wearing a distinctive Bactrian-style headdress, Takhti-Sangin, Tajikistan, Greco-Bactrian kingdom, 3rd–2nd century BCE
The Tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae, Iran.
A scene from the Hamzanama where Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib Burns Zarthust's Chest and Shatters the Urn with his Ashes
The fire temple of Baku, c. 1860
Fire Temple of Yazd
Museum of Zoroastrians in Kerman
A Special Container Carrying The Holy Fire from Aden to the Lonavala Agiary, India
A modern Zoroastrian fire temple in Western India
Sadeh in Tehran, 2011
Map of the Achaemenid Empire in the 5th century BCE
Reconstruction of the Sassanid model of Fire Temple of Kashmar is located near the historical complex of Atashgah Castle
Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi or the Khvarenah.
A Parsi Wedding, 1905
The sacred Zoroastrian pilgrimage shrine of Chak Chak in Yazd, Iran.
Parsi Navjote ceremony (rites of admission into the Zoroastrian faith)

It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ontology and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good.

Sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah

Druze

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Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia, who adhere to a faith that originally developed out of Ismaili Islam although most Druze do not identify as Muslims.

Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia, who adhere to a faith that originally developed out of Ismaili Islam although most Druze do not identify as Muslims.

Sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Druze woman wearing a tantour during the 1870s in Chouf, Ottoman Lebanon
Meeting of Druze and Ottoman leaders in Damascus, about the control of Jebel Druze
Druze warriors preparing to go to battle with Sultan Pasha al-Atrash in 1925
Druze celebrating their independence in 1925.
Druze leaders meeting in Jebel al-Druze, Syria, 1926
Prophet Job shrine in Niha village in the Chouf region.
Israeli Druze Scouts march to Jethro's tomb. Today, thousands of Israeli Druze belong to such "Druze Zionist" movements.
Druze dignitaries celebrating the Nabi Shu'ayb festival at the tomb of the prophet in Hittin, Israel.
Druze clerics in Khalwat al-Bayada.
The Druze Maqam al-nabi Yahya (John the Baptist) in As-Suwayda Governorate.
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Jethro shrine and temple of Druze in Hittin, northern Israel
Druze Prayer house in Daliat al-Karmel, Israel
Druze sheikh (ʻuqqāl) wearing religious dress
Israeli Druze family visitng Gamla; wearing religious dress.
Druze women making Druze pita in Isfiya, Israel.
Qalb Loze: in June 2015, Druze were massacred there by the jihadist Nusra Front.
Shuaib (Jethro) grave near Hittin, Israel: Both religions venerate Shuaib.
Christian Church and Druze Khalwa in Shuf: Historically; the Druzes and the Christians in the Shuf Mountains lived in complete harmony.
Left to right: Christian mountain dweller from Zahlé, Christian mountain dweller of Zgharta, and a Lebanese Druze man in traditional attire (1873).
The Druze Maqam Al-Masih (Jesus) in As-Suwayda Governorate: Both religions revere Jesus.
Maqam Al-Khidr in Kafr Yasif.
Oliphant house in Daliyat al-Karmel.

They practice Druzism, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad and ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Citium.